Seven years ago, Stonewall Jackson Calhoun woke up in a V.A. hospital with his memory obliterated by a lightning strike. Since then, Stoney has regained nothing in the way of concrete memories of his life before and has instead started out fresh, reinventing himself from scratch. Now he works as a part-time fishing guide on Casco Bay in Maine, is a part-owner of a local bait-and-tackle shop, lives with his dog, Ralph, in a cabin in the woods, and pursues, as best he can, a romance with a woman too frequently unavailable.

Early one September morning, Stoney is out with a client on a fly-fishing trip when an unscheduled stop at a small, uninhabited island reveals the charred remains of a recent corpse. Stoney's attempt to avoid getting involved in the investigation of that grisly murder founders a couple of days later. His client, a college professor and writer, shows up unexpectedly at Stoney's cabin, shot dead with his body propped up in a chair on the front porch.

With the corpses from two inexplicable murders having appeared in his path in a matter of a couple of days, Stoney can only wonder if these crimes have something to do with the past he can't remember, and if he'll have time to figure out that connection before the consequences become even more personal.